This invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of applying parts such as a guide plate for guiding the shutter of a cartridge and other members onto a cartridge.
Recently, there have appeared a lot of cartridges for accommodating optical disks or magnetic disks. Each of such cartridges has an outer shell in which a disk is received, and a shutter for opening and closing a spindle hole and a head inserting hole. In order to slide the shutter on the cartridge, the distal ends of the shutter are guided by a guide plate provided in the lateral direction of the cartridge.
Such a guide plate is applied manually to the front and back surfaces of the cartridge by using a two-surface adhesive tape piece. That is, a two-surface adhesive tape having adhesive on the front and back surfaces thereof is first cut into a plurality of adhesive pieces and each of the pieces is then applied onto the guide plate manually to form a unit of the guide plate and the adhesive piece. Thereafter, the guide plate with the adhesive piece is manually applied onto one surface of the cartridge. In general, since the guide plates are applied onto the front and back surfaces of the cartridge, the cartridge must be rotated upside down after the guide plate is attached to one surface of the cartridge.
Such a manual operation is very troublesome and needs much time to manufacture the cartridges. Further, it to the increase in cost of the cartridges.
In addition to the guide plates, there may be a case that other parts must be applied onto the surface of the cartridge. In such a case, the other parts must be manually applied onto the cartridge. Therefore, an apparatus for and a method of applying parts onto the cartridge quickly and easily with a low cost are desired.